Marshall prices in US slashed!

rockmonster

Forgive the pun but it seems new Marshall distribution in the US of A  have ‘slashed’ the prices of their amps. 

Will this mean the prices of US amps in the UK will also be ‘slashed’?
 And pigs may fly!

GoFish

Marshalls in the USA were terribly overpriced, as MESAs are here. This will at best be an adjustment in the direction of parity.

Now will Mesa/ Boogie prices in the UK be 'Santanta'd'?

Not before California freezes over!

randella

Marshall doubtless have one eye on their own woes in the 70s and their US distributor trousering enormous markups at the expense of American buyers. Damn nearly bankrupted them, led to all sorts of side hustles (Park) and legal wranglings.

In the end - if accounts are to be believed - they were saved by putting the JMP Master in a new box and calling it JCM800, giving them a 'new' product they could sell outside of the distribution deal.

A neat trick but you'd probably go out of your way to not have to repeat it.

mrkb

They need to keep the amp brand awareness high to allow the rest of the profitable business to sell merch, so it’s probably a loss leader.

Modulus_Amps

Courier prices to the US have come down recently, that may have something to do with it.

fretmeister

GoFish said:

Marshalls in the USA were terribly overpriced, as MESAs are here. This will at best be an adjustment in the direction of parity.

Now will Mesa/ Boogie prices in the UK be 'Santanta'd'?

Not before California freezes over!

Mesa prices already came down when they got rid of Westside.... and now went up again to about the same level.

yay!

Boromedic

I was seriously shocked at the prices of Marshalls in the USA when I watched a video comparing the build quality to a Friedman. I thought the content maker was being unfair, until I realised in the US the Friedman was cheaper new and is a level above in terms of construction and parts. Absolute madness really, think they've seen sense maybe.

Dave_Mc

Boromedic said:

I was seriously shocked at the prices of Marshalls in the USA when I watched a video comparing the build quality to a Friedman. I thought the content maker was being unfair, until I realised in the US the Friedman was cheaper new and is a level above in terms of construction and parts. Absolute madness really, think they've seen sense maybe.

Yeah exactly- and by the same token, if you're on more internationally-orientated guitar forums, you need to be very careful when listening to recommendations by anyone for any guitar gear, as it's very dependent on where they live and how much they pay for the things there!

Daiganzen

Yeah, this has been hurting Marshall in the USA for years. But vice versa Marshall’s in the UK are cheap compared to say a Friedman or Mesa

tekbow

mrkb said:

They need to keep the amp brand awareness high to allow the rest of the profitable business to sell merch, so it’s probably a loss leader.

That's actually a fair point.

Marshall Amps are quite a small portion of the parent companies business.

They just wanted the name to put on their stuff.

robmac5150

This is mentioned on Dave Frienman's YouTube show. Apparently Marshall got rid of their distribution recently

parker_knoll

Daiganzen said:

Yeah, this has been hurting Marshall in the USA for years. But vice versa Marshall’s in the UK and cheap compared to say a Friedman or Mesa

or even Fender, which are hugely overpriced here compared to the US. £1600 for a mass produced PCB 22w amp with a cheap speaker? People pay it and assume it must be a high quality product until it breaks. 

The same was always true for Marshall which were boutique priced in the US, whereas a handwired is the same price as the Fender above.